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spenkevich's review against another edition
5.0
‘Misogyny is typically (though not invariably) a response to a woman’s violation of gendered “law and order”’
Following her essential treatise on the nature of misogyny, [b:Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny|34640834|Down Girl The Logic of Misogyny|Kate Manne|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1506476695l/34640834._SY75_.jpg|55801901], Dr. Kate Manne is back with a collection of essays to further examine the enforcement role misogyny plays in upholding the patriarchy. This time she turns her attention specifically on male entitlement, though in doing so addresses many of the systemic aspects of patriarchal control. In her own words, ‘Entitled tackles a wide range of ways in which misogyny ¹, himpathy, and male entitlement work in tandem with other oppressive systems to produce unjust, perverse, and sometimes bizarre outcomes.’ While Down Girl, for self-imposed reasoning, tended to mostly address misogyny from a white, cis standpoint, what is really welcomed in this collection is the way the essays give opening to discussions on misogynoir--the intersection of oppression on Black identity with misogyny as coined by queer Black feminist Moya Bailey--and trans individuals. Throughout the book, Dr. Manne takes an important look at the ways male entitlement is another vile tentacle of the patriarchy and emboldened of misogyny and looks at different aspects of society in which this is omnipresent such as entitlement to knowledge, power, sex, consent, medical care, bodily control domestic labor and the intersections of these.
The book opens with a concise portrait of her image of entitlement: ‘ the widespread perception that a privileged man is owed something even as exalted as a position on the Supreme Court’. Similar to her New York Times article on Brett Kavanaugh, Manne uses his SCOTUS interviews to illustrate many of the aspects of misogyny detailed in her philosophical treatise [b:Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny|34640834|Down Girl The Logic of Misogyny|Kate Manne|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1506476695l/34640834._SY75_.jpg|55801901] to reestablish definitions and ideas in order to further investigate them in the following chapters. To recap the definition she arrives at in her previous work, Manne describes misogyny as ‘the “law enforcement” branch of the patriarchy,’ a system that upholds patriarchal norms and polices or punishes women and girls who threaten or deviate from the norms. ‘My account of misogyny counsels us to focus less on the individual perpetrators,’ she writes, ‘and more on misogyny’s targets and victims.’ Her rationale is that ‘misogyny doesn’t require us to know what someone is feeling,’ to identify that they perpetuate misogyny and mostly that
While often using individual examples to best grasp the concepts, Manne has an extraordinary ability to demonstrate how these become larger truths indicative of a systemic and systematic oppression and skillfully examines power structures or groups--such as INCELS and the poorly termed theocratic 'Pro-Life' movement--and the way they enforce the patriarchy at the expense of cis and trans women.
There is an exquisite flow to Dr. Manne’s writing, often threading an overarching study or story through her examinations of a subject in a way that builds a sort of narrative tension compelling you to read on, gripping the book like a thriller despite the disquieting subject matter. Her style is so utterly engaging and coupled with a mastery of discourse and elegant yet direct writing that make Entitled so endlessly readable. Which is cause for celebration, since this is such an important subject and her accessibility into the topic will make it easier to approach and learn from for others. I honestly can’t applaud her enough, though--full disclosure--she is an academic hero of mine and I just really want everyone to read this book and take it to heart. Dr. Manne draws from an impressive litany of scientific studies and cultural examples--even using the viral short story Cat Person by [a:Kristen Roupenian|14853744|Kristen Roupenian|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] at one point--to reinforce her arguments as well as demonstrate the ways in which her subject matter seeps into every aspect of society. The Milgram Shock Experiment, for example--which has been used as a touchstone for examining totalitarianism for decades--is put in a new perspective here as an example of how people can be socially coached into upholding oppressive institutionalized misogyny.
On the Entitlement of Admiration really kickstarts the collection with a probing look at the Incel community and the violence perpetrated by them in the name of misogyny. This chapter opens the prospects of examining how misogyny is an aspect of a perceived hierarchy--something pop-philosophers like the disgraced Jordan Peterson have upheld specifically for the purpose of perpetuating a patriarchal society towards their own benefits--that is racially coupled with white supremacy. This section also approaches the way in which perpetrators of misogyny often shift the narrative because they ‘perceive themselves as being the vulnerable ones.’ It is through gaslighting and himpathetic support that patriarch enforcers are able to establish and maintain this narrative control, which bleeds into every aspect of entitlement discussed later in the book.
The entitlements pertaining to sex and consent are particularly of note in the #metoo era and the ways that a women’s behavior is often more regulated and explained by society than those who have inflicted sexual violence upon them. Dr. Manne frequently aims the discourse towards the methods of silencing women and efforts to decenter them from their own victimization, particularly as the disbelief of women is amplified ‘for women who are multiply marginalized, because they are Black, queer, trans, and/or disabled.’ As women are significantly less likely to be believed or listened to, even in medical situations where studies have shown women are largely dismissed as being hysterical instead of believing their actual instances of feeling pain, this leads to a normalizing issues of ‘testimonial smothering’. The term, as coined by philosopher [a:Kristie Dotson|4926871|Kristie Dotson|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] refers to ‘where a speaker self-silences, due to her anticipating that her wod will not receive the proper uptake, and may instead place her in an “unsafe or risky” situation.’ Consider this next time an accusation of rape of assault is met with accusations dismissing them for not coming forth sooner, or--in the larger scheme of things--the ways accusations are difficult due to the himpathy and rampant misogyny that has normalized disbelief in women’s testimonies. This is especially frightening in medical situations where already most medical models use cis male bodies as a standard metric.
Of particular note is the chapter on bodily control. This begins with a damning indictment of the Pro Life movement, their often theocratic aims, and the vicious marketing campaigns that brought it to a national political discourse. Dr. Manne step by step evicerates the movement by pointing out their many hypocracies--’the anti-abortion movement is not plausibly about life. It is not plausibly about religion, either’--before turning her attention to its origins and the way it Beginning with Nixon and his “Triple A: Acid, Amnesty and Abortion” smear campaign against McGovern, Dr. Manne demonstrates how the movement was never about abortion but garnering votes via bad faith arguments ².Overall, she demonstrates how the movement is an essential misogynist weapon that removes women from ownership of their own bodies.On the double standard normalized by the movement she writes:
Dr. Manne returns to the ideas expressed in earlier chapters that entitlement and male supremacy fixates not on the idea of woman as sub-human, per say (though the Incel rhetoric may place them in this hierarchy for their own vile convenience), but because ‘even if her humanity is not in doubt, it is perceived as owed to others.’ This is a succinct wrapping of misogyny over the whole issue, coupled with the aspects of white supremacy reinforcing it due to the undeniable fact that removing the pathways to legal abortion does not, in fact, reduce the number of abortions and exponentially causes harm to marginalized individuals ‘for when pregnancies are policed it is predominantly poor and nonwhite women who are liable to pay for it--and not only with respect to access to abortion.’ This chapter alone is worth a read as legislating away women's autonomy has become a major political platform.
Dr. Manne extends this discussion to bodily control over the trans community. Citing philosopher [a:Talia Mae Bettcher|2774208|Talia Mae Bettcher|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], she points out how much of the violence perpetrated against trans women is due to an entitlement of men to know what sex organs are in their pants. ‘pensis and vaginas [are] seen...as “legitimate possessions” to which males and females respectively have moral entitlements.’ On the topic of bathrooms, Dr. Manne eloquently points out that the victims in the situation are not cis women hypothetically being preyed upon by fake trans people using identity as an avenue to violence but the actual trans women who have frequently been assaulted or killed. ‘The notional victims,’ she writes about these disproven ideas of bathroom assaults by trans individuals, ‘serve as a post hoc rationalization fro the preexisting desire to police the supposed moral offender.’ Most anti-trans rhetoric is largely bad faith arguments attempting to pre-impose a belief of violence on those who are actually most likely to be the victims of violence.
Many of the threads discussed through the book culminate in the later chapter, On the Entitlement to Power, in which Dr. Manne discusses the ways that misogyny not only harms women in the workplace but in the access to political power as well. If you are to only read one essay this year, make it this chapter. Manne references studies that show ‘a marked, consistent bias towards the male leader,’ and how this all relates to socially enforced perceptions of “likeability”. ‘[S]ocial psychologists have speculated that there’s something about women who seek the highest positions of power and the most masculine-coded authority positions that people continue to find off-putting.’ Many of these same traits people disdain in women they will praise in men, and there is an added emphasis that women must be considered kind and caring. ‘When it comes to demonstrable niceness, it’s an imperative for powerful women--and seemingly inconsequential for their male rivals.’ This is run through examples from recent American politics--Dr. Manne’s incredible essay on the Elizabeth Warren campaign is a noteworthy supplement--and also misogynist attacks on New Zeeland’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. This chapter is such a powerful amalgamation of the themes in the book and any voter should read it and consider how patriarchal systems perpetuate themselves through power struggles that enforce their viewpoints as the normalized reality when ‘[women] are not entitled to challenge the narrative put forward by their male counterparts.’
This is an essential read that is of vast importance in today’s society. There are many more aspects covered, such as the disparity of household duties between men and women and the mansplaining insistancy on the entitlement to knowledge that draws from the essay Men Explain Things to Me (read it here) by [a:Rebecca Solnit|15811|Rebecca Solnit|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1535567225p2/15811.jpg]. Dr. Kate Manne gives a brilliant and cutting overview in the many ways male entitlement is an oppressive force in society that harms women. In conclusion, she writes ‘although I am still far from hopeful, I am not so despairing anymore.’ The final section is a beautiful conclusion full of hope, and a necessary read for any parent, particularly those of young girls. While the obdurate patriarchal society is still at large and violently so, works such as this are a vital avenue to understanding and dismantling it.
5/5
¹ Himpathy, as defined by Dr. Manne: ‘the way powerful and privileged boys and men who commit acts of sexual violence or engage in other misogynistic behavior often receive sympathy and concern over their female victims.’ For further reading on a similar concept, this article on ‘male bumblers’ by Lili Loofbourow is an insightful read on the ways males play a ‘forgetful/unaware bumbler’ in order to wash their hands of misogyny or sexual violence.
² For further reading, it is important to consider how the Pro Life movement really took off as a deterrence towards Carter’s reelection, as discussed in this article by Politico. While many churches actively supported Row vs Wade--Southern Baptists twice drafted statements of support following the ruling--political marketers seized on abortion as a clever cover to attract evangelical voters who were upset that the IRS was threatening to remove tax exempt status for segregated schools.
Following her essential treatise on the nature of misogyny, [b:Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny|34640834|Down Girl The Logic of Misogyny|Kate Manne|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1506476695l/34640834._SY75_.jpg|55801901], Dr. Kate Manne is back with a collection of essays to further examine the enforcement role misogyny plays in upholding the patriarchy. This time she turns her attention specifically on male entitlement, though in doing so addresses many of the systemic aspects of patriarchal control. In her own words, ‘Entitled tackles a wide range of ways in which misogyny ¹, himpathy, and male entitlement work in tandem with other oppressive systems to produce unjust, perverse, and sometimes bizarre outcomes.’ While Down Girl, for self-imposed reasoning, tended to mostly address misogyny from a white, cis standpoint, what is really welcomed in this collection is the way the essays give opening to discussions on misogynoir--the intersection of oppression on Black identity with misogyny as coined by queer Black feminist Moya Bailey--and trans individuals. Throughout the book, Dr. Manne takes an important look at the ways male entitlement is another vile tentacle of the patriarchy and emboldened of misogyny and looks at different aspects of society in which this is omnipresent such as entitlement to knowledge, power, sex, consent, medical care, bodily control domestic labor and the intersections of these.
The book opens with a concise portrait of her image of entitlement: ‘ the widespread perception that a privileged man is owed something even as exalted as a position on the Supreme Court’. Similar to her New York Times article on Brett Kavanaugh, Manne uses his SCOTUS interviews to illustrate many of the aspects of misogyny detailed in her philosophical treatise [b:Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny|34640834|Down Girl The Logic of Misogyny|Kate Manne|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1506476695l/34640834._SY75_.jpg|55801901] to reestablish definitions and ideas in order to further investigate them in the following chapters. To recap the definition she arrives at in her previous work, Manne describes misogyny as ‘the “law enforcement” branch of the patriarchy,’ a system that upholds patriarchal norms and polices or punishes women and girls who threaten or deviate from the norms. ‘My account of misogyny counsels us to focus less on the individual perpetrators,’ she writes, ‘and more on misogyny’s targets and victims.’ Her rationale is that ‘misogyny doesn’t require us to know what someone is feeling,’ to identify that they perpetuate misogyny and mostly that
’misogyny may be a purely structural phenomenon, perpetuated by social institutions, policies, and broader cultural mores.’
While often using individual examples to best grasp the concepts, Manne has an extraordinary ability to demonstrate how these become larger truths indicative of a systemic and systematic oppression and skillfully examines power structures or groups--such as INCELS and the poorly termed theocratic 'Pro-Life' movement--and the way they enforce the patriarchy at the expense of cis and trans women.
There is an exquisite flow to Dr. Manne’s writing, often threading an overarching study or story through her examinations of a subject in a way that builds a sort of narrative tension compelling you to read on, gripping the book like a thriller despite the disquieting subject matter. Her style is so utterly engaging and coupled with a mastery of discourse and elegant yet direct writing that make Entitled so endlessly readable. Which is cause for celebration, since this is such an important subject and her accessibility into the topic will make it easier to approach and learn from for others. I honestly can’t applaud her enough, though--full disclosure--she is an academic hero of mine and I just really want everyone to read this book and take it to heart. Dr. Manne draws from an impressive litany of scientific studies and cultural examples--even using the viral short story Cat Person by [a:Kristen Roupenian|14853744|Kristen Roupenian|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] at one point--to reinforce her arguments as well as demonstrate the ways in which her subject matter seeps into every aspect of society. The Milgram Shock Experiment, for example--which has been used as a touchstone for examining totalitarianism for decades--is put in a new perspective here as an example of how people can be socially coached into upholding oppressive institutionalized misogyny.
On the Entitlement of Admiration really kickstarts the collection with a probing look at the Incel community and the violence perpetrated by them in the name of misogyny. This chapter opens the prospects of examining how misogyny is an aspect of a perceived hierarchy--something pop-philosophers like the disgraced Jordan Peterson have upheld specifically for the purpose of perpetuating a patriarchal society towards their own benefits--that is racially coupled with white supremacy. This section also approaches the way in which perpetrators of misogyny often shift the narrative because they ‘perceive themselves as being the vulnerable ones.’ It is through gaslighting and himpathetic support that patriarch enforcers are able to establish and maintain this narrative control, which bleeds into every aspect of entitlement discussed later in the book.
The entitlements pertaining to sex and consent are particularly of note in the #metoo era and the ways that a women’s behavior is often more regulated and explained by society than those who have inflicted sexual violence upon them. Dr. Manne frequently aims the discourse towards the methods of silencing women and efforts to decenter them from their own victimization, particularly as the disbelief of women is amplified ‘for women who are multiply marginalized, because they are Black, queer, trans, and/or disabled.’ As women are significantly less likely to be believed or listened to, even in medical situations where studies have shown women are largely dismissed as being hysterical instead of believing their actual instances of feeling pain, this leads to a normalizing issues of ‘testimonial smothering’. The term, as coined by philosopher [a:Kristie Dotson|4926871|Kristie Dotson|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] refers to ‘where a speaker self-silences, due to her anticipating that her wod will not receive the proper uptake, and may instead place her in an “unsafe or risky” situation.’ Consider this next time an accusation of rape of assault is met with accusations dismissing them for not coming forth sooner, or--in the larger scheme of things--the ways accusations are difficult due to the himpathy and rampant misogyny that has normalized disbelief in women’s testimonies. This is especially frightening in medical situations where already most medical models use cis male bodies as a standard metric.
Of particular note is the chapter on bodily control. This begins with a damning indictment of the Pro Life movement, their often theocratic aims, and the vicious marketing campaigns that brought it to a national political discourse. Dr. Manne step by step evicerates the movement by pointing out their many hypocracies--’the anti-abortion movement is not plausibly about life. It is not plausibly about religion, either’--before turning her attention to its origins and the way it Beginning with Nixon and his “Triple A: Acid, Amnesty and Abortion” smear campaign against McGovern, Dr. Manne demonstrates how the movement was never about abortion but garnering votes via bad faith arguments ².Overall, she demonstrates how the movement is an essential misogynist weapon that removes women from ownership of their own bodies.On the double standard normalized by the movement she writes:
‘Boys will be boys, but women who get pregnant have behaved irresponsibly. We are so comfortable with regulating women’s sexual behavior, but we’re shocked by the idea of doing it to men.’
Dr. Manne returns to the ideas expressed in earlier chapters that entitlement and male supremacy fixates not on the idea of woman as sub-human, per say (though the Incel rhetoric may place them in this hierarchy for their own vile convenience), but because ‘even if her humanity is not in doubt, it is perceived as owed to others.’ This is a succinct wrapping of misogyny over the whole issue, coupled with the aspects of white supremacy reinforcing it due to the undeniable fact that removing the pathways to legal abortion does not, in fact, reduce the number of abortions and exponentially causes harm to marginalized individuals ‘for when pregnancies are policed it is predominantly poor and nonwhite women who are liable to pay for it--and not only with respect to access to abortion.’ This chapter alone is worth a read as legislating away women's autonomy has become a major political platform.
Dr. Manne extends this discussion to bodily control over the trans community. Citing philosopher [a:Talia Mae Bettcher|2774208|Talia Mae Bettcher|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], she points out how much of the violence perpetrated against trans women is due to an entitlement of men to know what sex organs are in their pants. ‘pensis and vaginas [are] seen...as “legitimate possessions” to which males and females respectively have moral entitlements.’ On the topic of bathrooms, Dr. Manne eloquently points out that the victims in the situation are not cis women hypothetically being preyed upon by fake trans people using identity as an avenue to violence but the actual trans women who have frequently been assaulted or killed. ‘The notional victims,’ she writes about these disproven ideas of bathroom assaults by trans individuals, ‘serve as a post hoc rationalization fro the preexisting desire to police the supposed moral offender.’ Most anti-trans rhetoric is largely bad faith arguments attempting to pre-impose a belief of violence on those who are actually most likely to be the victims of violence.
’[T]he anti-abortion movenent’s supposed pre-occupation with life belies the fact that it undermines the health and lives of cis girls and women, along with other people who may also become pregnant. Similarly, the anti-trans movement’s supposed preoccupation with sexual safety and lives of a particularly vulnerable class of people: namely, tans girls and women, who are disproportionately liable to be attacked, assaulted, and murdered, at rates that recently prompted the American Medical Association to declare this an epidemic.’
Many of the threads discussed through the book culminate in the later chapter, On the Entitlement to Power, in which Dr. Manne discusses the ways that misogyny not only harms women in the workplace but in the access to political power as well. If you are to only read one essay this year, make it this chapter. Manne references studies that show ‘a marked, consistent bias towards the male leader,’ and how this all relates to socially enforced perceptions of “likeability”. ‘[S]ocial psychologists have speculated that there’s something about women who seek the highest positions of power and the most masculine-coded authority positions that people continue to find off-putting.’ Many of these same traits people disdain in women they will praise in men, and there is an added emphasis that women must be considered kind and caring. ‘When it comes to demonstrable niceness, it’s an imperative for powerful women--and seemingly inconsequential for their male rivals.’ This is run through examples from recent American politics--Dr. Manne’s incredible essay on the Elizabeth Warren campaign is a noteworthy supplement--and also misogynist attacks on New Zeeland’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. This chapter is such a powerful amalgamation of the themes in the book and any voter should read it and consider how patriarchal systems perpetuate themselves through power struggles that enforce their viewpoints as the normalized reality when ‘[women] are not entitled to challenge the narrative put forward by their male counterparts.’
This is an essential read that is of vast importance in today’s society. There are many more aspects covered, such as the disparity of household duties between men and women and the mansplaining insistancy on the entitlement to knowledge that draws from the essay Men Explain Things to Me (read it here) by [a:Rebecca Solnit|15811|Rebecca Solnit|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1535567225p2/15811.jpg]. Dr. Kate Manne gives a brilliant and cutting overview in the many ways male entitlement is an oppressive force in society that harms women. In conclusion, she writes ‘although I am still far from hopeful, I am not so despairing anymore.’ The final section is a beautiful conclusion full of hope, and a necessary read for any parent, particularly those of young girls. While the obdurate patriarchal society is still at large and violently so, works such as this are a vital avenue to understanding and dismantling it.
5/5
¹ Himpathy, as defined by Dr. Manne: ‘the way powerful and privileged boys and men who commit acts of sexual violence or engage in other misogynistic behavior often receive sympathy and concern over their female victims.’ For further reading on a similar concept, this article on ‘male bumblers’ by Lili Loofbourow is an insightful read on the ways males play a ‘forgetful/unaware bumbler’ in order to wash their hands of misogyny or sexual violence.
² For further reading, it is important to consider how the Pro Life movement really took off as a deterrence towards Carter’s reelection, as discussed in this article by Politico. While many churches actively supported Row vs Wade--Southern Baptists twice drafted statements of support following the ruling--political marketers seized on abortion as a clever cover to attract evangelical voters who were upset that the IRS was threatening to remove tax exempt status for segregated schools.
cmurray_7's review against another edition
5.0
Very clear argument for an insight about how patriarchy is sustained.
Each chapter clearly lays out a case where men are entitled to sex, consent, care, knowledge, etc at the expense of a women (de-prioritizing her rights).
That's all. That's the review.
Each chapter clearly lays out a case where men are entitled to sex, consent, care, knowledge, etc at the expense of a women (de-prioritizing her rights).
That's all. That's the review.